Judge finds Chicago’s embattled U.S. attorney violated secrecy order in Tren de Aragua case

When the hearing began, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura McNally told Chicago’s top federal prosecutor, “I would appreciate if you’d come up.”

More than a week earlier, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros had traveled to Washington for a July 1 press conference to tout criminal charges against three alleged Tren de Aragua gang members, along with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel.

But Thursday, Boutros found himself being summoned by the judge to the front of one of the largest courtrooms in the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, where a crowded gallery of onlookers had gathered behind him. Then, for nearly half an hour, he stood and listened to McNally say there’d been a “clear” violation of her order sealing the very case Boutros had gone to Washington to announce.

McNally did not lift that seal until July 2, the day after the press conference. And while she said her order “was not honored by the Department of Justice,” she rejected any hint that responsibility fell at the feet of rank-and-file prosecutors.

“What I do know,” McNally told Boutros, “is that your statement acknowledges that you were aware, when you went up there, that there was a sealing order in place.”

McNally said her order was “unambiguous.” She did not find that the order was violated for “any nefarious purpose,” though. She ordered no sanction. “I also find and conclude — thank God — no concrete harm came as a result,” she said.

Boutros told McNally he took her comments “very seriously.” He said his “intentions were to comply with the order.” And he told the judge, “I respect your findings.” The entire hearing lasted 40 minutes, including Boutros’ commentary.

While it might have seemed anticlimactic, the hearing amounted to an extraordinary moment inside the Dirksen courthouse, where Boutros’ office is in the midst of a credibility crisis unlike any faced by his recent predecessors. It’s the second time in seven weeks a judge has rebuked northern Illinois’ top federal law enforcement official in person.

The first rebuke came May 21, after Boutros permanently dropped charges against a group of Operation Midway Blitz protesters known as the “Broadview Six” over revelations of misconduct by his staff.

U.S. District Judge April Perry told him “you are significantly undercutting your mea culpa here by standing behind the charges and continuing to vilify these particular defendants” after he went on to say their conduct was “unacceptable in a civilized society.”

Numerous controversies have erupted since. But the latest, prompting the hearing in front of McNally, touches top officials in the Justice Department. McNally said Thursday she was also concerned with comments made during the press conference by Blanche, who President Donald Trump has nominated to permanently serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official.

“This morning in Chicago, federal and local law enforcement charged three alleged [Tren de Aragua] members on a criminal complaint, charging the brutal murder of another victim,” Blanche said during the July 1 press conference, referring to the Venezuelan gang the Trump administration has aggressively targeted.

McNally on Thursday told Boutros, “that’s more than we allow on our docket here, that statement.”

She also noted that “photos were lifted from this under-seal complaint and put up on a screen.”

Justice Department officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Boutros is 15 months into his tenure as Chicago’s top federal prosecutor. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed him to the role in April 2025 on a temporary basis. Chicago’s federal judges chose Boutros to continue the job on a more permanent basis later that summer.

U.S. District Chief Judge Virginia Kendall declined, through a spokesman, to comment on Thursday’s proceedings, citing the judicial code of conduct.

While Boutros experienced a rocky first year in office, the controversy around him didn’t reach a fever pitch until Perry discovered apparent misconduct by Boutros’ staff during grand jury proceedings in the “Broadview Six” case. Boutros has announced “sweeping” grand jury reforms and a review of nearly 20 years of work by the veteran prosecutor at the center of that scandal.

Still, questions remain about the role others played in the case. And new controversies have flared even in cases with no apparent connection to the “Broadview Six.” Boutros and his team dodged other hearings in the last several weeks, but Boutros failed to convince McNally to call off Thursday’s hearing.

McNally joined the bench in November 2024 after serving as a litigation partner at Loeb & Loeb LLP.

Thursday’s hearing revolved around a case leveling federal charges of kidnapping conspiracy against Josue Pacheco Torres, Kleiver Monasterio Briceno and Julian Pachano. A now-unsealed criminal complaint alleges they are a group of Venezuelan nationals, involved with Tren de Aragua, who participated in a plot to kidnap and kill a male whose body was discovered by police May 19 inside an abandoned Chicago apartment building.

McNally on June 29 ordered that the complaint and other documents in the case be sealed “until the time of arrest of all defendants in this case or further order of the court.” She said the order “does not prohibit law enforcement personnel from disclosing the complaint, affidavit, and arrest warrants as necessary to facilitate the enforcement of criminal law.”

But June 30, Boutros said he was invited to the press conference in Washington the following day. He told the judge Thursday that law enforcement officials advised waiting until the morning of July 1 to seek to have the complaint unsealed, because that “would be the safest course to proceed with the execution of the arrest warrants.”

However, McNally said prosecutors called her chambers at 10:05 a.m. July 1 claiming they “needed to obtain a ruling within the next 15 minutes.”

“I was given 15 minutes to consider the motion,” McNally told Boutros on Thursday. “… At that time, I had other pressing matters — as your office was well aware.”

She went on to say “all I did” that day “was hearings involving the Department of Justice.”

Boutros told her, “the sincere hope was that, by the time I landed in Washington, all three defendants were in custody. And it just didn’t work out that way.”

Eventually, he said he “no longer had access to my phones” as he prepared to appear at the press conference.

“The last communication that I saw from my team was words to the effect of, ‘We’re going to chambers. We’re headed up to chambers to take care of this.’ That’s the last thing I saw,” Boutros said.

The top prosecutor said he had no intention of blaming his staff for the seal order violation. But he also said he’d taken “comfort” in Washington in a “fallback position.”

McNally’s order allowed for disclosure of the complaint to “facilitate the enforcement of criminal law.” Boutros argued in a court filing Wednesday that one purpose of the press conference was to “deter future crimes” by Tren de Aragua.

McNally didn’t buy that.

“I would not have signed an order that permitted the full discretion of the entire law enforcement community to decide that, at this point, we think what we’re doing here should not be sealed,” McNally said. “I would not have granted that motion.”

Though McNally ended the hearing without handing down any sanction, Boutros is not out of the woods yet. In fact, similar hearings could still materialize in multiple pending cases. For example, members of the “Broadview Six” are still asking Judge Perry to appoint a special counsel who would investigate Boutros and others in the Justice Department.

Meanwhile, U.S. Magistrate Judge Keri Holleb Hotaling recently agreed to a “brief” delay of a hearing during which she might consider sanctions against federal law enforcement.

Holleb Hotaling said she’d hold such a hearing after video surfaced that appeared to contradict a sworn affidavit she’d been given. It occurred in the case of three people charged in connection with the attempted robbery of undercover federal officers in Country Club Hills.

Holleb Hotaling gave defense attorneys until Friday to file a brief in the matter but has not set a new hearing date.

Finally, defense attorneys for former Loretto Hospital chief financial officer Anosh Ahmed are still seeking a hearing — or permanent dismissal of fraud charges — over alleged misconduct by a prosecutor during grand jury proceedings in that case.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman already threatened to hold a hearing in that matter. Boutros’ office avoided it by permanently dropping charges against two of Ahmed’s co-defendants.

But even as they did so, Coleman sent Boutros’ team back to the office with a warning.

“Make sure that your boss understands,” Coleman said, “that that evidentiary hearing thing — it’s still a possibility. I’m not saying that’s over with, at least in this room.”